Thousands of protesters marched during the Indonesian capital Tuesday demanding better working conditions to mark international Labor Day. While increasingly frequent strikes have revealed discontent inside the labor force, analysts say Indonesia remains to be far from overcoming its sweatshop reputation.Â
Traveling from all the way through to hitch the large rally, thousands marched peacefully along Jakarta's main roads to deliver their message to the presidential palace Tuesday.
Among the group was Dede Rasani, a forty five-year-old factory worker from Bandung and a member of the Indonesian Trade Union Federation.
Rasani says the govt neglects the rights of workers and fails to correctly implement labor laws.
The government, he argues, should increase minimum wage, regulate pension payments and eliminate outsourcing.
Tuesday's protest is the most recent in a chain in Indonesia some time past year.
The success of workers at West Papua's Freeport mine, recently granted a 37 percent wage increase after a 3-month strike, has encouraged laborers around the country rebellion.
In February 20,000 factory workers in West Java demanded their minimum wage be increased, they usually won. Their win has sparked similar victories in eight other provinces.
Sportswear producer Nike was recently forced to pay its local workers $1 million in unpaid overtime. There's also new controversy over allegations that uniforms for the London Olympic Games are produced under sweatshop conditions in Indonesia.
Yet depite the rising variety of protests, economist Ichsan Fauzi says Indonesia's huge pool of inexpensive labor undermines the chance of improved worker rights.
“The incontrovertible fact that unemployment and underemployment exists during this country and makes up 30 percent of the labor force means there'll always be those who find themselves willing to take jobs with less pay, under the minimum wage, said In a means, that puts a cap at the official labor movement,†said Ichsan.
Indonesia is experiencing rapid economic growth but Indonesian factory workers still remain among the lowest-paid in Asia, making between $100 to $200 a month - not up to China, India, Malaysia and Thailand.
Many companies hire outsourced workers to prevent obligations within the labor laws. But even though the speed of outsourcing dropped, there's a fear that foreign companies will merely find cheap labor elsewhere.
Ichsan says despite labor groups' recent victories, the rustic still a ways off from the type of coordination efforts which have shaped workers' rights elsewhere.
“You can't compare the labor movement in Indonesia with those in Western Europe as an illustration, that of staging widespread strikes," said Ichsan. "That has not been witnessed on this country.â€
While Indonesia's labor unions remain fragmented, seven groups recently announced they might form a countrywide umbrella organization.
In response to Tuesday's rally, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced a brand new higher income ceiling that's not subject to tax, in addition initiatives providing cheap housing for employees.
Photo Gallery: May Day Across the World
From WhatNewsToday.net
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